Category Archives: Transport News

COMMUTERS can now check public transport information via their cell phones at four Shanghai subway stations starting today.

The service will be accessible at Xujiahui Station on Line 1, Zhongshan Park and Lujiazui stations on Line 2, and People’s Square Station, where lines 1, 2 and 8 intersect, the Shanghai metro authority said today, according to a Xinmin Evening News report.

Passengers can check service times of nearby buses and metro lines, maps of metro stations and nearby roads, surrounding buildings, as well as traffic information when the mobile phone connects to the Internet.

To install the system, China Mobile users should first short message “A” to 10658028 and then enter the hyperlink in the reply to download the Barcode Reader software, which will only take a few seconds, the report said. Then take a picture of the barcode on the top right corner of the platform board at the metro station and the system will automatically log onto the Website containing surrounding traffic information. The report did not say what user fees would be involved.

Mobile phone users who can not download the software or connect to the Internet can type in the metro station name and short message to 106691900916 free of charge for specific traffic information.

The roaming mobile phone tour guide system now covers 13 cities with subway lines in China. Apart from traffic information, railway and flight timetables are also available. Users can also choose different languages.

When testing is completed, two-dimensional barcodes will be installed at all metro stations.

By 2010, this system will be integrated in all public transport systems in Shanghai.

The number of passengers using UK airports fell sharply in January, as demand for air travel continued to fall and airlines cut capacity and removed some unprofitable routes.

The sharp traffic decline along with the problems for potential bidders of raising debt finance are making the sale of BAA airports, led by the disposal of Gatwick, a fraught process for the UK group and Ferrovial of Spain, its majority owner.

BAA, which operates seven UK airports, said it handled 9.4m passengers in January, a 6.3 per cent decline from the same month in 2008 and the tenth successive year-on-year decline in monthly passenger numbers. The number of flights to and from the seven airports, which include Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted, fell 7.5 per cent year-on-year in January.

The decline in air traffic is hitting BAA at a very difficult time, as it seeks to find a buyer for Gatwick, the second busiest airport in the UK, and shortly before the Competition Commission is expected to demand that it should also sell Stansted and either Edinburgh or Glasgow airports. The competition watchdog, which is expected to publish the final report on its investigation into BAA within weeks, believes that the group’s monopoly of the leading airports in London and Scotland should be broken up in order to foster more competition in the airports market.

The BAA traffic figures released on Tuesday showed that both Gatwick and Stansted were being hit hard by falling passenger and flight volumes.

At Gatwick, the number of passengers handled last month fell 10.8 per cent year-on-year as the grip of recession tightened. By comparison passenger volumes in the 12 months to January at 33.9m were 3.6 per cent lower than a year earlier. Traffic at Gatwick has been falling steeply year-on-year since September.

The airport has been affected by the transfer of a large number of its US long-haul services to Heathrow as a result of the US-European Union “open skies” treaty, which opened Heathrow to full competition for all US and European carriers for the first time in March last year. Some of its carriers also collapsed into bankruptcy last year. Both American Airlines and Continental Airlines have closed their Gatwick bases, and British Airways has transferred several US long-haul services from Gatwick to Heathrow and is shrinking its short-haul operations.

Gatwick is proving increasingly attractive for the low-cost carriers, however, with EasyJet adding new routes from the airport and Aer Lingus setting up its first operating base outside the island of Ireland at the airport.

Traffic at Stansted airport, the most important airport for low-cost airlines in Europe, is also being hit hard, particularly by the reduction of capacity at Ireland’s Ryanair during the winter months.

Volumes have been falling at Stansted for 15 months in succession, also undermining the timing of BAA’s plans to build a second runway there. The group said passenger numbers at Stansted fell 11.2 per cent year-on year to 1.29m in January, representing a 19 per cent decline in two years.

Moving vehicles will generate electricity for street lights and road signs in a London trial

Rhodri Phillips

The Observer, Sunday 8 February 2009

“Green” speed bumps that will generate electricity as cars drive over them are to be introduced on Britain’s roads. The hi-tech “sleeping policemen” will power street lights, traffic lights and road signs in a pilot scheme in London that could be rolled out nationwide.

Speed bumps have long been the bane of motorists’ lives, but these will capture the kinetic energy of vehicles.

Peter Hughes, the designer behind the idea, said: “They are speed bumps, but they are not like conventional speed bumps. They don’t damage your car or waste petrol when you drive over them – and they have the added advantage that they produce energy free of charge.” An engineer who formerly advised the United Nations on renewable energy sources, Hughes added: “If it [the energy] wasn’t harnessed by the speed bumps, it would go to waste.”

The ramps – which cost between £20,000 and £55,000, depending on size – consist of a series of panels set in a pad virtually flush to the road. As the traffic passes over it, the panels go up and down, setting a cog in motion under the road. This then turns a motor, which produces mechanical energy. A steady stream of traffic passing over the bump can generate 10-36kW of power.

The bumps can each produce between £1 and £3.60 of energy an hour for up to 16 hours a day, or between £5,840 and £21,024 a year. Energy not used immediately can be stored or fed into the national grid.

“With a steady flow of traffic, four of the ramps used as speed bumps would be enough to power all the street lights, traffic lights and road signs for a mile-long stretch of street. The ramp is silent, comfortable and safe for vehicles. It is not only green energy; it is free energy, once you have paid for the capital cost of the equipment,” said Hughes. “The full potential of this is absolutely enormous.” Hughes claims that 10 ramps could generate the same power as one wind turbine.

The “electro-kinetic road ramp” system can either be raised to act as a speed bump or laid flat, so that drivers don’t realise they are passing over it.

A spokesman for Ealing council in west London confirmed that £150,000 of funding had been secured for the scheme: “The money is there for the scheme in 2009-10,” she said. “The details – how many speed bumps there will be and where they will be – still needs to be finalised. It is an innovative idea. We are excited to be part of it.”

Hughes said he had been in talks with more than 200 councils interested in introducing the system, as well supermarket chain Morrisons about a flat version of the ramp at its depot in Sittingbourne, Kent.

Speed humps were introduced in the UK in 1981. There are an estimated 30,000 in London and at least that number in the rest of the country. Conventional speed humps cost about £2,000 each.

A nightclub opened in Rotterdam in the Netherlands last year that is run partly on energy generated by people dancing. Last year, it was also reported that pedestrians’ footsteps could be used to power lighting at shopping centres.

The traffic and road transportation division head at the transportation agency, Muhammad Akbar, said PT Waskita Karya, the developer of Corridor 8, was also responsible for repairing the broken busway infrastructure.

“The corridor is still within the one-year maintenance tenure after construction,” he said.

“The corridor has fulfilled the minimum requirements for a bus to pass along its lane and to stop at shelters. Broken automatic doors and roofs at shelters can be fixed while the corridor operates.”

The 28-kilometer-long corridor has a total of 24 shelters, 17 of which are new. It takes a Transjakarta bus 2.5 to four hours to travel Corridor 8 from Lebak Bulus to Harmoni.

As for the fate of the idle corridors 9 and 10, Rini did not provide any details.

Akbar said Corridor 9 linking Pinangranti in East Jakarta and Pluit in North Jakarta and Corridor 10 linking Cililitan in East Jakarta and Tanjung Priok in North Jakarta were unable to operate.
The three corridors have missed their deadlines several times due to the absence of buses.

“We did a trial run along the corridor last week. Transjakarta will be ready to launch Corridor on 8 Feb. 14,” said Daryati Asrining Rini, Transjakarta head.

The 28-kilometer corridor has 24 sheltered stops, 17 of which are new.

The route runs between the Lebak Bulus bus terminal and Harmoni busway interchange via Pondok Indah in South Jakarta.

Though Corridor 8 had been scheduled to roll out by September 2008, city administrators and Transjakarta missed several deadlines due to construction delays and a bus shortage, leaving the facilities idle.

As reported earlier, Corridor 8 requires 45 buses. Transjakarta infrastructure manager Taufik Adiwianto said for the February launch, Corridor 8 would borrow some of the 426 existing buses from Corridors 1 to 7.

“Within the week we will complete our operational plan for Corridor 8 and decide whether we can operate the full route or only half. It depends on how many buses we can reassign from the seven running corridors,” Taufik said.

He added that ideally Corridor 8 buses would have five minutes headway, the standard time interval between buses for all corridors.

Land transportation division head at the transportation agency, Hendah Sunugroho, said the use of buses from other corridors might mire the already slow headway on existing corridors which often surpass the five-minute mark.

Current headway between buses on Corridor 1 (Blok M-Kota) is three to five minutes, in Corridors 2 (Pulo Gadung-Harmoni), 3 (Kalideres-Harmoni), 4 (Pulo Gadung-Dukuh Atas), 5 (Ancol-Kampung Melayu), and 7 (Kampung Rambutan-Kampung Melayu) it varies from five to 10 minutes. Corridor 6 Ragunan-Kuningan headway can be up to 20 minutes.

Besides bus availability, some Corridor 8 lane separators show signs of wear and tear, though Hendah has said the damage was minor.

This year, the city has allocated Rp 15 billion (US$1.27 million) for maintenance on all 10 corridors.

Still-idle corridors 9 and 10 are scheduled to be up and running by mid-2009. Corridor 9 runs between Pinangranti in East Jakarta and Pluit in North Jakarta; Corridor 10, between Cililitan in East Jakarta and Tanjung Priok in North Jakarta.

Construction on the three corridors has missed several deadlines. All originally were set to launch in September 2007, before then Governor Sutiyoso ended his term.

Governor Fauzi Bowo then set the launch deadline for April 2008 before postponing it to September. Fauzi also put new transportation agency heads in place in July to improve performance.